Curse Child: A D&D story
by Legion Fardreamer
Summary: We all know how much trouble Drizz't had assimilating into the surface world. Imagine how much trouble a drider, even one who had grown up among humans on the surface, would have trying to do the same thing. As always the respective characters and worlds belong to their respective owners, and my characters belong to me. Also I am entirely too broke to bother suing.


**Curse Child**

 **Chapter One**

Liandra was a girl on a mission. Her prey had made it into the woods, thinking to elude her, but the woods were her domain. She knew every leaf and branch, every tree and hole. That was how she knew that her prey was going to a pond fed by a small creek. It was a popular place with the local children and teenagers. It would be the first place her prey would go on such a hot and humid day.

She brushed her sweaty white hair off of her equally sweaty forehead. The sun was terrible on her black skin, and it still stung her red eyes. Still, she had a task to carry out, so Liandra pushed onward, her eight spider legs scuttling across the border into the forest. As she entered the shade, she gave a sigh of relief.

As a drider, her kind was not really built for being above ground, much preferring the caves of the Underdark. However, her true parents had fled to the surface, and died not long after. A kind human tribesman, and his half-elven wife, saw the remains of the scene and deduced that the male drider was not attacking the drow female, but trying to defend her. The drow female, who lay dying, began to plead with the human to protect her child, not realizing that neither the human nor the half elf spoke her language. As she gave her last breath, she revealed what she had died defending to the couple.

At first, Thomen thought the child was a drow like her mother, but when Neesa pulled back the swaddling cloth, it was revealed that the child was a drider like what they now realized was her father. It only confirmed what the scene had already told them. The drow woman and the drider were lovers, and he had died defending his mate and child.

Thomen was leery of taking such a child into his home, for fear of it turning on them. Neesa, however, saw a child of elven blood who bore a curse she did nothing to earn. She cooed over the baby drider while her husband built a funeral pyre for the lovers who had given all for their child.

The years passed, and the strange family had ups and downs as families do. Two years after Liandra was found, Thomen and Neesa brought their own child into the world. Senna was a handful, and was very fond of her big sister, who her parents discovered was very protective of her little sister.

Violently so.

As the girls grew, Thomen and Neesa began teaching them what they knew. Senna took to the quarterstaff and dagger like she was born to them, but Liandra's skills lay with the long bow and her own natural weapons. In fact, her spider abilities seemed to make her destined to the path of a ranger.

Senna, on the other hand, had abilities of her own. Her intelligence was remarkable, and more than once, she had shown signs of magical ability. Unfortunately, that intelligence seemed to have fled in the presence of a handsome boy. A handsome boy that neither Liandra, nor their father, had any liking for. Thomen, for obvious reasons, and Liandra because she well remembered how the handsome boy used to torment her.

It was that boy, now sixteen summers old, that Liandra was hunting. More accurate to say, it was his companion for the evening that she was after. Senna had sneaked away, leaving her chores undone, and while Neesa was somewhat understanding of Senna's attraction, even she was angry with the girl. This was why an eighteen summer old drider female was currently stalking through the woods with orders to bring her adoptive sister home. Liandra also had orders to put an arrow or three into the boy in question if he even looked like he was going to protest.

Mother was angry, but Father was furious.

"You web her up, and drag her back here like a sack of potatoes, if you have to."

"Yes Mother."

"Liandra?"

"Yes Father?"

"If that damned boy decides to interfere, I don't mind one bit if you put a few arrows into him."

Liandra's expression became a feral grin, baring her fangs.

"Understood, Father."

As she neared the pond, she could hear her sister's laughter, and a low male voice. Liandra climbed up the nearest tree, and began jumping from tree to tree, approaching the clearing stealthily. What she found made her groan quietly.

Senna lay on a blanket, the boy next to her, and neither were wearing any clothing.

Using her webbing, Liandra silently made her way to the ground. Once she was settled, she cleared her throat noisily. The effect was a comical scrambling for clothing, followed by a sneer from the boy.

"Ah. The monster. Here to drag your darling sister back by her hair to those stuffy parents of hers, I suppose."

His sneer faded as he realized that Liandra was holding her bow in one hand, an arrow in the other, and she was glaring at him with a murderous expression.

"Give me an excuse, Mikhail. They will not find your body."

Senna finished pulling on her dress, and spoke up.

"Liandra, don't tell Mother and Father you found us! They'll try to split us apart! We're going to leave for the city soon. Mikhail has asked me to marry him! Isn't that wonderful?"

Liandra stared in incredulity at her sister. Shaking it off, she she shouted "Have you taken leave of your senses?! He's still sleeping with that tavern girl, and the baker's daughter, and you think he's going to be loyal to you? The baker's daughter is carrying his child! He's trying to run, and still have a pretty girl to keep him company."

"Lies," Senna sniffed loftily. "She's not really pregnant. She's just getting fat."

Shaking her head, the drider resheathed her arrow, and slung her bow.

"She's going to get a lot less fat in another ten day or so. He knows that, and that's why he's suddenly in such a hurry to leave. The tavern girl has morning sickness, as well. She's so afraid of what her master will say, she's thinking of running away."

Turning to look at Mikhail, who had gone white, she said "If my sister is also pregnant, you will not live to see the child born."

"Liandra!"

Turning back to her sister, she said in a low hiss "Father will butcher him like a hog, and you know it, Senna! You do know who they will send if this idiot runs off. Me! I'm the only decently trained ranger for miles around. At least two people would be happy to hire me to hunt him down, and one of them will want his skin. The other would want him alive, only so he could castrate him personally. Is that what you want? Besides, Father got a message today."

Mikhail had not moved from his place, but Senna stepped forward, her eyes wide.

"Is it what I think it is? The Academy?"

"It is. How well do you think you could get through the Academy of Neverwinter while you're throwing up from morning sickness? And you think this disloyal sack of dragon dung is going to help you? Look at him! He's ready to bolt like a frightened pony."

"What would you know?! You've never been in love before! You probably never will be, either... Umm, you know. Because of the ranger thing. Yeah! Men like women who can be ladies."

Liandra snorted in disgust.

"Men like women who can be whores, too. You know what? You're on your own. I've had it with you."

"Liandra?"

"If you're so determined to ruin your life, who am I to stop you?"

She turned to leave when her sister's voice stopped her.

"Liandra, I didn't mean-"

Turning back with a menacing hiss, she growled "I know exactly what you meant, Senna Breezehame! Of all the people to throw that in my face, I never would have expected it to come from my own sister."

Liandra turned back to head home. The silence she left behind in the clearing was deafening.


End file.
